After Boston bombings, terror politics in Massachusetts

Weeks after the Boston bombings, terrorism politics have taken center stage in the Massachusetts Senate race to replace John Kerry.

Instead of jobs and the economy, Democrat Ed Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez have been trading shots over which one more shamelessly exploited the killing of Osama bin Laden. The back-and-forth shows the willingness of both parties to use terrorism national security and terrorism as a political cudgel even on the heels of the worst attack on the homeland since Sept. 11, 2001.

Text Size

-

+

reset

Kerry gets emotional on Boston

Tom Kean, the former Republican New Jersey governor who was chair of the bipartisan 9/11 commission, decried the frequency with which both parties have tried to use terrorism for political gain since the 9/11 attacks. The public’s distaste for politicizing the nation’s worst day has dimmed in the intervening decade — even in the state that saw the most recent terror attack.

“There’s no credit here, for anybody,” Kean said, noting Democrats increasingly tout that “we got bin Laden.” “I don’t like it when the Democrats do it and I don’t like it when the Republicans do it. It should be and it’s got to remain bipartisan.”

Yet for Democrats, this is a fight they increasingly want to have — especially in Massachusetts, where they hope to paint Gomez, a former Navy SEAL, as too far to the right as he presents himself as a moderate. Markey, was was first elected to the House in 1976, is the clear favorite in the race. But a Public Policy Polling survey last week had Gomez — who boasts a successful private sector career but has never run for office — trailing by a surprisingly narrow 4 points.

The fight began last week when Markey’s campaign released a web video last week featuring a still shot of Gomez juxtaposed against bin Laden.

Gomez’s campaign cried foul, expressing outrage that a former Navy SEAL would be featured in such a spot. But Gomez’s camp omitted a relevant fact: The video footage came from a news report about Gomez’s work for a group that accused President Barack Obama of leaking classified intelligence on the operation to kill bin Laden during the 2012 campaign.

Gomez fired back by accusing Markey of responding with “malaise” to the Benghazi attacks, amid fresh congressional hearings this week on the State Department’s handling of what happened.

“Not only is Ed Markey’s stance on Benghazi out-of-touch, but his lack of basic understanding and apathetic nature toward terrorism and our national security is increasingly dangerous for the safety of families in Massachusetts and across the country,” read the statement from Gomez’s camp.

Gomez last year served as a representative for an anti-President Obama super PAC, Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, which produced a 22-minute video accusing Obama of politicizing the killing of bin Laden. Democrats say Gomez’s work for the group contradicts his self-portrayal as a moderate — and pointing it out is fair game.

“Feigned outrage from national Republicans is nothing more than a purposely misleading attempt to hide the fact that Gabriel Gomez fully embraces unlimited, undisclosed special interest money in the Massachusetts Senate race and embodies the disgusting ideological lows some are willing to sink to in an effort to smear their opponents,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Justin Barasky. He added that Gomez last year tried to “swift boat” Obama over the capture and killing of bin Laden.